A student who was recruited to join Islamic State (IS) by an AI bot on social media and travelled to Somalia to become a martyr has been jailed for 12 years for terrorism-related offences.
Mohamed Mohamoud, 22, flew to Somalia in January last year after telling his family he was 'going to go to the beaches and see other family members and enjoy myself'.
However, he told the jury that he was planning to join IS and die as a martyr because he was 'excited to see the afterlife'.
The court was told he was offered a job as a 'spy' but turned it down because it was not a combat role in the 'killing zone' on the front line and he thought his family contacts in Somalia would identify him.
The defendant, who was aged 20 at the time and had no combat training, returned to the UK in March last year after his bid to become a martyr failed due to ongoing counter-terrorism operations.
After coming back to the UK, he continued to keep in contact with IS recruiters and told them: 'Anytime, you say the word, I will return.'
Mohamoud was eventually arrested on January 20 this year and his phone was seized and examined.
He was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism at Winchester Crown Court by taking steps to join IS in Somalia, following his trial in August.
Mohamed Mohamoud, 22, has been jailed over terrorism-related offences after the student was recruited to join IS by an AI bot on social media and travelled to Somalia to become a martyr
Mohamoud flew to Somalia in January last year after telling his family he was 'going to go to the beaches and see other family members and enjoy myself'
In a sentencing at The Old Bailey today, Mr Justice Lickley jailed him for 12 years with a further four years on extended licence.
The judge told him: 'You did everything you could to join IS and were prevented by factors beyond your control. I am satisfied if you had joined you would have been used in a combat role.'
Mr Justice Lickley said the defendant was not unintelligent but was 'naive' and until he changed his radical beliefs and support for IS, he posed a danger to the public in the future.
Mohamoud had denied preparing acts of terrorism but admitted attempting to join IS in Somalia.
He told the court that he was born there but his parents separated when he was three years old and he was taken with his younger brother to live with his stepmother in the UAE.
He then lived between Somalia and the UAE until he moved in 2020, at the age of 16 or 17, to live with his mother in Bristol whom he had seen only once since his parents had split up.
The court was told the defendant was a teenager when he arrived in the UK and had limited leave to remain until 2027.
Before attempting to join IS, Mohamoud was going to the gym and studying English, maths and cookery at the City of Bristol College in Ashley Down, which was when he started viewing extremist videos on YouTube and TikTok.
His mother thought he had been 'brainwashed' by al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist group, according to one message.
Naomi Parsons, prosecuting, told the court that Mohamoud developed a 'strong desire' to fight jihad and return to Somalia.
He started to look online for advice, messaging a user on TikTok on December 27 2024: 'I am Somali boy living in England. I want to travel to join the mujahideen but I don't have a contact or anyone who can guide me.'
Mohamoud was directed to make contact with an automated 'bot' on the Telegram social media app called Al-Hijrateyn.
He told the jury: 'This is an automatic bot or whatever. It connects people trying to emigrate to anyone that can help them with the process.
'When you start to speak with the bot, first you are speaking to the bot but there is something you have to do – you write which language you speak and this sort of thing and then it will connect you to a real person inside the bot.'
Mohamoud bought hiking boots, and a solar powered battery pack and messaged a contact in Somalia called Abu Ladin on January 21: 'What advice do you have for me? I am leaving and I do not have any plan.'
He messaged Abu Ladin again on January 26: 'My ambition is martyrdom. May God make it easy for us and give us the best thing he gives his servants which is martyrdom.'
He left London Heathrow on January 30, flying via Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, to Garowe, capital city of the Puntland region in north-east Somalia, with a return ticket booked for March 3.
Mohamoud was met by his cousin and booked into a hotel from where he messaged a second bot on Telegram called Xiriirka Al-Hijrateyn, claiming he was in Bossaso and adding: 'I want to join the mujahideen as soon as possible.'
The bot responded: 'And peace to you as well, brother. If it turns out to be the real deal, we'll make sure you get connected.'
Moments later, he was connected to a real recruiter using the name Abu Ali who asked him to provide information about his background, personal circumstances, family members, connections and his clan in Somalia.
Mohamoud provided the answers and added on February 6: 'I do not wish to return to the land of infidelity. For a long time, I wished to die in the cause of god.'
On February 2, Mohamoud travelled north to Bossaso, where his grandmother lived, an eight-hour journey of about 280 miles, remaining there until February 11 when he travelled 100 miles to his family village of Waaciye.
At the time the Puntland government had launched a counter-terrorism operation called Operation Hilaac against IS with international support.
Abu Ali warned: 'Did you realise we're actually in the middle of a war? You realise how dire things have got.
'Airstrikes keep pounding and there's fierce combat happening as we speak. You're following all this?'
Mohamoud replied: 'Yeah brother, I am fully aware. I'm longing for martyrdom, honestly, there's no better moment than right now. Chances like this. They are few and far between.'
Abu Ali passed him on to another recruiter called Qaad but got the same message: 'It is simply a matter of conflict and instability. God willing, once I get the chance we will sort it out.'
The 'dead end' forced Mohamoud to return to Britain on March 3 but 'did not signal a change of heart,' Ms Parsons said.
On March 16, he messaged Abu Ali: 'Anytime, you say the word, I will return'.
Dominic Thomas, defending, asked if he was 'not happy with your existing life' and he replied: 'That was some of the reason I was trying to die but the main reason was I was excited to see the afterlife.
'In my mind it was easy to die in that place. There would be multiple reasons but I did not think the specifics of it. It was a battlefield it was easy to die there.'
He was emigrating 'to be a martyr' and thought that 'god would be pleased with me,' he said.
He planned to swear allegiance or 'bayat' to the head of IS to show that he had 'become a true believer,' he said.
'When I give my allegiance the first thing I was thinking was to become a martyr, to die as soon as possible.'
However, he denied intending to kill anyone, telling the jury: 'My focus, my point wasn't to affect anyone or try to harm anyone, that wasn't my focus. My focus was just to reach the afterlife, die, never come back.'
In mitigation, Dominic Thomas said: 'He went there to fight and die. He made no bones about it.
'He was not recruited because anyone who might be in a position to recruit him was presumably too busy fighting. The prospect of him causing harm to others was equally low.'
Mr Thomas pointed out that the defendant chose to return to the UK rather than 'redouble' his efforts to join IS and was not apprehended for months after coming back to the UK.
He added that the defendant had made some 'foolish and unpleasant' comments on his return but was beginning to see his 'wrongheadedness' at a low point in his life and there was hope for change in the future.